136 CYANOMITRA HARTLAUBI. 



fading almost into white on the sides of the body ; entire throat deep 

 metallic violet shaded blue. Total length 56 inches, culmen 0-8, wing 25, 

 tail 23, tarsus 85. Prince's Is. (Ingall). 



Adult Female. Similar to the male, only with no metallic colours, the 

 throat being olive yellow like the breast. Total length 4-7 inches, culmen 

 0-7, wing 2 3, tail 2, tarsus 0-8. 



The Prince's Island Sunbird is confined to the island of 

 that name. 



The only trustworthy information respecting this Sunbird 

 is given by Mr. Keulemans and Dr. Dohrn. The former 

 gentleman found it tolerably abundant throughout Prince's 

 Island with the exception of the dense woods, where it is 

 replaced by G. dbscura. He found it very plentiful near plan- 

 tations, usually in small groups of from four to six individuals, 

 in which the males were by far the most numerous. " They 

 have no special breeding season," he writes, " for I have found 

 young birds in every month of the year ; but I find in my 

 journal, under the date of August 30th, that during that month 

 I procured nineteen males but not a single female ; so I 

 suppose at that season all the hens were breeding. I collected 

 three nests, all of which were very similar. They are of an 

 oval form, and are suspended from one or more twigs at an 

 elevation of from four to twelve feet from the ground and 

 generally well concealed amongst the foliage. They were con- 

 structed of the hairy appendages that are found on the bark 

 of palm trees, rather loosely woven together and lined with 

 the soft filaments of flowers, cotton, and other fine materials, 

 with the opening on the side most exposed to the light. I 

 never found any of the eggs, but one was brought me by a 

 native boy supposed to belong to this species ; it was a nearly 

 perfect oval, pure white, and with a very thin shell. 



" It appears to me that there is only one in each brood, for 

 I never saw the parents feed more than a single young bird. It 

 takes a long time before the young bird becomes independent ; 



